Equity Magazine July 2017 Issue

ENTREPRENEUR
SMOOTH
OPERATOR
Thomas Ovesen, the man behind Dubai’s highly-rated
concerts takes us through his journey from air traffic
controller to Founder of 117 Live
Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Jennifer
Lopez, you hear of famed artists across
social media and the radio, ahead of
their gigs in the city, but who’s behind
117 Live and the brand that brings your favourite
artists to town? It’s Danish-national Thomas
Ovesen. Chief Executive Officer of 117 Live has
been in the Middle East since the summer of
1998, setting foot in Bahrain as an air traffic
controller, just as the no-fly zone in Iraq was
terminated and the civilian air traffic started
booming again. So how did he transition to form
one of the best live event companies within the
country? “Being an air traffic controller in
Bahrain meant I was doing night shifts, as it was
busy. When you work three-night shifts back to
back, you have four days off. I was often the guy
at the British or the Rugby club and whenever
someone asked for help for events they would
look to me as they thought I was never working. I
was keen as I yearned for more,” he tells us.
After a few live events including a New Year’s
Eve party, Thomas began to get the thrill of it,
craving to work on projects the minute he got an
evening off. The one thing that did cross his
mind at that point was, “Why is everything so
poorly organised?” Naively, he threw himself
head first into the field, approaching a company
in Bahrain for part-time work. “They probably
thought I was mad but they needed someone to
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EQUITY